FINAL FANTASY XIV: A REALM REBORN DISCUSSION THREAD

I've been around since Beta of 2.0. I'm on the Gilgamesh server.

I'm notoriously bad at grinding out levels, so none of my jobs are at max level yet (level 60). Also I can't play right now because my one time password dongle thingy is in another state at the moment.

One thing you should be aware of is those last story mode dungeons of the initial 2.0 story were never that hard. People breezed through them when they were new. It was slightly harder than it is now, but it was never something that a group had to sit down and figure out, really. They had to introduce incentives to replay them as there was no exp for them, as you were already max level at level 50 at the time, because the new players wouldn't be able to get past them because there would be no full groups.


Back in the day, Dragoon was known as the job that died. Simple as that. Lancer of course was even more vulnerable. Even now you've probably heard the jokes, of how it's the Dragoon's job to die or something or other. This was due to their low magic defense, and jumping abilities which literally thrust them into danger. Since then, they've given those abilities invulnerability frames and increased their magic defense. They're now less prone to dying, though newbies can still jump themselves to death.

My story is before those buffs. Before Heavensward, and before a lot of the post-2.0 content. Lancer was not my first class, so I knew a thing or two about the dungeons ahead. I had some tricks up my sleeve, and there I found myself in Haukke Manor with a tankless group. Back then there were no real incentives for tanks to do old content other than level up, so when a tank (or even a healer) left, your group was usually doomed. Earlier dungeons could be ran without a tank sometimes, but Haukke Manor was generally thought of as one where you absolutely needed a tank.

I told my team "Look at me, I'm the tank now." I went ahead and cross classed Provoke, an absolutely necessary skill for tanks, and all the defensive skills I could. The healer had all the confidence in the world, either in me, or himself, I don't know. The other archer was a bit hesitant and didn't think it could be done, but he had a good head on his shoulders, and so he was fit for the job. Luckily most of the enemies in Haukke Manor only deal physical damage. Pretty much the only enemies that have any magic attacks were the succubus enemies and the boss imp paired with the boss skeleton. This made every boss fights tricky but at least we were able to take down all the minor enemies without too much trouble.

There was a little known fact about the Succubi enemies. All of their magic attacks are aoe's and entirely avoidable. They will miss 100% of the time if you just go behind them while they're still casting. I happened to know this little known fact, and was able to tank boss and peon alike. The tricky one was the imp, which was paired with a giant skeleton. There was no way I'd be able to tank both of them, and just keeping hate would be hard enough. So I asked the other two members "how high is your M.Def?". I tanked the skeleton. Our healer tanked the imp. I took every opportunity I could to hit both bosses with the slow effect, to try and reduce incoming damage to both of us. Me and the archer tried to kill the skeleton as fast as we could else the healer would run out of MP. It was close, but we did it.

In comparison, the last boss of the dungeon was easy. I could avoid all of the bosses damage and all we really had to do was to kill the additional monsters in time, all of which also had attacks that could be avoided, except for the bombs and the eye. At the end of it all the entire group felt really proud that we had done it. The saddest part, I guess, was that we all played on different servers and never talked to each other again lol.


na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/character/2184569/

i just bought it, did a benchmark test and made a bunch of chars to see if i liked the creation system

Gilgamesh is where it's at. Loads of useful players waiting to help you.

If you can get in.

I fought Gilgamesh an  hour ago. I died at the end. We still won though.

i had to pick jenova and leviathan since gilgs full and i couldnt find a way to switch servers

and excals full, rags europe, grr -_-

ah, the evil tobacco plant >P, definitely one of the more interesting enemies to fight

A whole thread for Eorzeans! How about that.

I'm Quintalian Palidor on Sargatanas, I main NIN and run a tiny FC called Quetzal Coterie. My avatar is of one of my retainers! I started back at the launch of 1.0, played most of the way through that except for one hiatus, and was there on the day, but not the final hour, of the Calamity.

When 2.0 hit, I convinced a few friends to join me. Unfortunately, they're hardly ever on anymore, so I haven't played much lately. I'm still a fan (wearing the Fan Fest T-shirt at the moment) and interested in what's coming next.

One of the benefits of being on a high pop server is, because it's always closed, the bots can't get in.

To be fair, I really don't like that mentality in XIV. There's not a lot of encouragement to "try it as you go" from Anon's; let alone people you get via the Duty Finder (hence why people tend to use other party forming methods now).

Instead, you'll get a lot of people saying something like: "Why didn't you YouTube this fight first"? To be honest... I for one, feel that some prefer (or even tend) to learn faster by action and hands on experience. In such a case... People can use their character's stats the way they built them, get a feel for how a character can handle the bosses, learn the timing for attacks, blocks, and aggro; and can learn to parse their DPS. All of that in turn helps me to develop an effective pattern and build. Not all YouTube videos or tutorials are as detailed and accurate as that; and some actually cannot account for random actions taken by raid or FATE bosses.

Truth be told, I don't feel that's a healthy mentality to have. It sends the learning experience to a source outside the game, which destroys community effort; and that in turn demolishes learning and effort. It's the same problem I had with WoW back in the heyday, around the time I had friends heckling me to get into it. Hearing people complain to skip the cut-scenes is another issue, as it breaks immersion and disrupts focus.

It's my opinion that some people tend to get a bit too caught up in the grind and loot farm (which is totally fine if that's why you're forming a party outside DF, since you can screen your members); and tend to forget about what they're missing. In fact, I (and no fewer than 2 others) missed the climax to both the 1.0 and 2.0 game; because we were forced to rush through. Going back to the inn and watching the scenes as they had suggested completely ruins that experience for us; never mind the fact that we didn't even have time to learn anything about the fights (let alone the stage leading up to them), because they wanted the exp and loot so badly. It wasn't until I hopped servers, swapped free companies 3 times, and did some digging that I got the experience most players look for on their first run.

Thing is,  CT (Crystal Tower) and BCB (Binding Coil of Bahamut) parties tend to do that a lot; and you'll see more of that in WoD (World of Darkness).

That being said, you shouldn't feel so bad. After all, it's because no one really communicates during boss fights (for many reasons). That, and XIV lacks a native VoIP party chat; which would be VERY helpful for Statics, friends forming Light Parties, and Free-Companies. 
Add to that, the fact that few players have enough manners to help a first time player with a boss; and some players can have a really rough experience. Nowadays, I tend to help everyone. I feel that may in turn, lead other players to help others. That helps the community grow.


Either way, don't sweat the haters or your performance, A.F..

It's just how a few runs go now and then. Hopefully, if I ever do come back... I can form a community of people who enjoy immersion, so I can help others enjoy their experience. But... We'll see. It all depends on how things look via my eyes and ears in the game, still. Keep your head up, keep running your dungeons, practicing your cool-downs and combos. You'll master it. No problem! Good luck to ya!